Thursday 2 September 2010 15.35 EDT
First published on Thursday 2 September 2010 15.35 EDT

Emerging from weeks of silence, the former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has appeared in Africa, where he said he was dealing in diamonds and visiting Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela.

A photograph of his meeting with the former South African president was released in Thailand by his lawyer in an apparent move to quash rumours that the fugitive was ill – and to advertise that he was rubbing shoulders with VIPs abroad.

"I travel all the time. Currently, I'm in Africa for diamond mining," Thaksin told the Thai Rath newspaper, adding that rumours of his failing health were lies. He said the photograph of him with Mandela was taken last Friday.

A spokesman for the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg did not return several calls seeking comment.

Thaksin, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006, has been accused of funding the anti-government Red Shirt protests in April and May. Protesters occupied Bangkok's main shopping district, forcing the closure of shopping malls and hotels , in an attempt to unseat the government and possibly bring Thaksin back to power. Sporadic violence and a crackdown by the military left 91 people dead and 1,400 wounded.

The tycoon-turned-politician, who remains popular among his rural poor power base, was convicted on conflict of interest charges in 2008 and fled the country. Thailand revoked his passports but Thaksin has acquired at least two new ones from Nicaragua and Montenegro.

He is believed to be living in Dubai. He has spent much of the past four years roaming the globe in search of business deals. He visited South Africa previously to inspect diamond mines and has travelled to Liberia, Uganda and Swaziland for investments in diamonds and gold. He has posted photographs of meetings with leaders on trips to Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea and the Maldives.

Normally active on Twitter, Thaksin's last posts came on 25 July, the day before his 61st birthday, when he called for political reconciliation in Thailand. Since then he has kept a low profile.

In the interview with Thai Rath, he complained about a Thai supreme court ruling in February that approved the seizure of $1.4bn (£910m) of his assets over his abuse of power while in office.

"More than half of my assets have been robbed from me, so I have to earn them back again to look after my kids," he said of his three adult children. In a list of Thailand's wealthiest people published this week, Forbes magazine put Thaksin at 23 with a net worth of $390m.